Top Artists

Glee Cast

Artist, Contributor

Glee is a musical-dramedy television show about a misfit high school glee club and their earnest Spanish teacher director.

Tiësto

Artist, Contributor

Dutch artist Tiësto used trance music as a springboard to become one of the most popular DJs in the world.

Michael Jackson

Artist, Contributor

Michael Jackson’s domination of radio and television in the 1980s earned him the nickname “King of Pop.”

Bring Me The Horizon

Artist, Contributor

Dubbed deathcore though they’re more complex, these Brits have been taking cues from American hardcore and metal since 2004.

Antonio Vivaldi

Artist, Contributor

Vivaldi was most influential for his development of the concerto, a work for orchestra that features a solo instrument.

Danny Elfman

Artist, Contributor

Danny Elfman, former Oingo Boingo wildman is now a respected film composer renown for his dark, majestic scores.

Top Works

The Infamous

Mobb Deep

One of the cornerstones of the New York hardcore movement, The Infamous is Mobb Deep’s masterpiece, a relentlessly bleak song cycle that’s been hailed by hardcore rap fans as one of the most realistic gangsta albums ever recorded. Given Mobb Deep’s youthful age and art-school background, it’s highly unlikely that The Infamous is drawn strictly from real-life experience, yet it’s utterly convincing, because it has all the foreboding atmosphere and thematic sweep of an epic crime drama. That’s partly because of the cinematic vision behind the duo’s detailed narratives, but it’…

Gigaton

Pearl Jam

Urgency has been Pearl Jam’s calling card since their inception, which is why it was a jolt to hear the band sound so settled on 2013’s Lightning Bolt. Maybe it’s the times, maybe it’s the choice to switch producers — the group swapped their longtime collaborator Brendan O’Brien for Josh Evans, who co-produced the album with the band — but Gigaton hits with the strength of a full-force gale. Weather is a galvanizing concern on Gigaton, with Pearl Jam structuring their 11th album around the looming climate change crisis. There’s little subtlety in this …

The Chronic

Dr. Dre

With its stylish, sonically detailed production, Dr. Dre’s 1992 solo debut, The Chronic, transformed the entire sound of West Coast rap. Here Dre established his patented G-funk sound: fat, blunted Parliament-Funkadelic beats, soulful backing vocals, and live instruments in the rolling basslines and whiny synths. What’s impressive is that Dre crafts tighter singles than his inspiration, George Clinton — he’s just as effortlessly funky, and he has a better feel for a hook, a knack that improbably landed gangsta rap on the pop charts. But none of The Chronic’s legions of imitators were as rich …

Customer Reviews